A Better Friend
by Jabraille
Summary: A series of drabbles about how the Reinhold Manor staff came to be. "Curious Village" spoilers. Augustus Reinhold & Bruno.
1. Bruno & Gus

His father was a toymaker. He had a knack for clever cogs, hidden springs, nearly noiseless clockwork.

Bruno had greater ambitions.

When the baron's son turned fifteen, Bruno entertained the party guests with a fully mechanized production of a popular play, with actors at quarter-scale.

When the baron's son became the baron, Bruno gave him a tin footman which proclaimed its master's presence in rhyming verse.

When the baron took a wife, Bruno brought a bevy of artificial doves that ate real breadcrumbs from Violet's hand.

When Augustus invited him to St. Mystere, Bruno knew to bring his largest toolbox.


	2. Matthew

"We need a new butler." The baron smiled at his shocked expression. "Not _you_, old friend. I had hoped you might build us one of your ingenious automatons."

"But, Gus, I don't know the first thing about butlers!"

"I'll tell you what he needs to know."

It was quite an education for both of them: Bruno learned all about the secret world of the household staff, while the baron eagerly absorbed the minutiae of robot construction.

When the new creature with its elderly face scuttled down the hall, both men held their breath.

When Lady Violet laughed, so did they.


	3. Ingrid

He was working on an improved internal mechanism when the baron burst in.

"We're expecting!" he hollered joyously.

Bruno was immediately swept up in the whirlwind of preparations. Augustus placed a new order with each breath: paint and furnishings for the nursery, clothes for a boy, clothes for a girl, clothes for a baby of either sex, clothes for Violet in each trimester, nappies and washcloths and all manner of linens and dozens upon dozens of toys...

"What about a nanny?" suggested Bruno, slyly, to Lady Violet.

"On one condition: whenever I ask, she _must_ return my baby to me."


	4. Brothers

"_What_?" yelled Bruno over the newborn's wailing.

"I _said_," Augustus bellowed back, "this house is too _quiet_!"

At first Bruno thought that lack of sleep had driven the baron mad. When the baby finally took her nap, his logic was easier to grasp.

"What Flora needs is voices—faces—_family_. She should be surrounded by love."

Bruno grinned. "How about some aunts and uncles?"

"No aunts," decreed Lady Violet, and her word was law.

Making up two brothers was a labor of love. He made them different and extreme and amusing.

Above all, he made them part of the family.


	5. Ramon

"There's one trait you've put into every robot."

Bruno was offended. "Every one of them is unique!"

"But they're all so _efficient_," laughed the baron.

There was no arguing the point. His automatons were dutiful to a fault, working nonstop from dawn til dusk.

* * *

His next creation had an obvious oddity in its features.

"Purple lips!" exclaimed Lady Violet. "That's different."

"He certainly _is_ different, dear."

* * *

Augustus had about yelled himself hoarse when Bruno sauntered in.

"What's wrong with the blasted footman? He doesn't answer! I swear, he's the laziest robot—"

His eyes widened.

They laughed about it for days.


	6. Broken

On the day little Flora took her first steps, Lady Violet collapsed.

The baron had doctors in and out at all hours—eminent physicians, specialists, the top men in every field—and waiting in vain for _one_ of them to give him hope. Each prognosis was more grim than the last.

At length he dismissed them all. Only he remained, holding her, comforting her, tending to her every need. Loving her.

Bruno "taught" his creations to walk quietly, to avert their eyes, to be silent and sad.

He could not teach Augustus to smile again with Violet lain in earth.


	7. Two Women and a Man

He wanted to surprise his friend the second it was complete.

He found the baron in the grotto, kneeling before her statue with his face in his hands.

Bruno lowered his voice respectfully. "Come with me."

He had been so sure that it would please the baron. He was unprepared for the horror on Augustus' face when it stepped forward, offered its hand, whispered "Darling."

He could not destroy her, so he made a new mind for the body—a new woman.

* * *

That same night, he started on another project: Archibald.

What the baron _really_ needed was a better friend.


End file.
